Something Missing

The Spiets move right downtown into a tiny rented house, which has a small yard and shed, and a garden. There is little furniture at first. But the Dutch government, although it forbade the removal of significant cash, did allow the taking of household effects; so about two weeks after they move here the family receives a large crate, about eight feet by ten feet by twenty feet, packed tight with all their furniture and personal effects from Holland. It is so big the trucking company just winches it off the deck onto the ground right on the shoulder of the road. What a cheery chore, to unpack that monster box and find all those things from home! Things the children thought were gone forever. Mom has a lot of her treasured heirlooms. Dad is glad to see his billiard table. The children have their toys and clothes. Jack is delighted to have some books, and the children are happy to find all their private keepsakes again.

The furniture does not include a fridge, and the family makes do without one for quite a while. Dad brings home a lot of odds and ends of various cuts of meat from work, and it is preserved by being cooked and then immersed in buckets of lard.

All the children of age are registered at school. And Jack is finally in a secure, conventional home, and going to a school with some prospect of attending long term. He is registered as though he were Victor's age, in the expectation that he will likely be able to handle that level of studies. He settles in with relief, and gets right to work.